Can I keep the purchase price of my house out of the public records?

Question by dave: How do I keep the purchase price of my house out of public records?
I am about to close on a home purchase in about a month and want to prevent the purchase price from showing up in the public records. I heard that there is a way to prevent the county from publishing this information in public records, but not sure about how to go about getting this done. Does anyone know how to do this?

Best answer:

My understanding is that its not possible to avoid real estate sales from going into public records. The law states that it is a “Matter of Public Record”. If this is important to you, consult with an attorney that knows real estate and can best guide you.

You can’t, at least in my state. Illinois. Purchase price is a matter of Pub Record. It is used for tax assessment and Must be recorded for your title insurance to work. The mortgage is also pub record.

What you can do is to put the title in a company name, but amounts to the same.

When I bought or sold houses I would always check the neighboring houses to see what price the brought.

You can hide the PURCHASER’s name by transferring it into a Trust or LLC, but not the Price. The sales price is disclosed on the Deed and recorded by the County for later tax purposes. The law states that it is a “Matter of Public Record”. I know of no reasons this could be prevented.

To late you already purchase the property and the title company has already sent paperwork to court house.
Normally speaking its not possible to avoid real estate sales from going into public records.
However if you had purchased this property using some owner finance and had not filed the paper work at the courthouse nothing would have shown up on public records. You are leaving deed in owners hands until you pay him off. That being said its risky to do this cause the deed is not in your name and if the owner gets into trouble financially liens could show up on the property making it difficult for you to get rid of without paying off debts or problems the owner you are buying the property got into.
Another thing I have seen is properties put into llc’s and the llc is sold. llc= limited liability corp. The transaction becomes a sale of a corp not a property. The transaction here should be arrainged by some professionals. I have done this and during the process you might assume a loan.
This is done with large apartment buildings on occassion.
To avoid the public records inst easy and I totally feel for you because I hate others knowing my financial business.
I hope this helped you.

When the deed is recorded the PVA is notified of the sale price & that is how the assessed value is determined. In most large cities the PVA is on line, so anyone who wants to know can access it. Also, if the property was on the MLS, any real estate agent can find out. Who doesn’t know a real estate agent who would look it up for you?

The only way you could do it is if you made the transaction a private transaction vs a public transaction. Anytime a mortgage is recorded on record…the transaction becomes public knowledge. There are two basic ways to keep this a private transaction. (1) Do a subject too financing or (2) Pay cash for the property.

Most people don’t understand and can not do the first and it is to detailed to explain here. The second is usually not possible for most people.

FYI…

Everyone should do themselves a favor when they close their loans. Take a copy of the note…sign it (in blue ink) and keep it for your records. If you want…you can even have it recorded with the mortgage (the bank will hate you for it…and if you want to know why…just ask me). But, if you ever go into foreclosure…it could very well be your saving grace. 🙂